


Let the Games a Begin

by Arro_Sohng



Series: Sail Away With Me [3]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 73rd Hunger Games, Blood and Gore, District 4, Everyone's gonna die, F/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Panem, Protective Harry Hook, Reapings, The Capitol, good luck Harry, i might not be totally accurate about everything so bear with me, oc's are not actual deep characters, really bad luck, sadness about Gil, sibling stuff, they're just there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:02:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arro_Sohng/pseuds/Arro_Sohng
Summary: Last year, Harry Hook was drawn in the Reaping. Thanks to Gil, Harry didn't go, but Gil didn't make it back. There's no way he'll be drawn again.Right?Welcome to the 73rd Hunger Games.And may the odds be ever in your favor.
Relationships: Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair, Calista Jane "CJ" Hook & Harry Hook, Harry Hook & Finnick Odair, Harry Hook/Uma, Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark, Mags & Finnick Odair
Series: Sail Away With Me [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659295
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	1. The Odds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Harry Hook!"

Lilana Bout's Capitol accent rang out across the forum, warbled by the terrible sound system. Harry shut his eyes and tried to block it out. The sun bared down on the square where all of District 4 was gathered.

Reaping Day.

His least favorite day.

Not that it was much worse than most days. Until last year, when they called his name...

_He was standing with the other fifteen years olds, staring up at the Capitol lady with lime green hair. She approached the glass bowl._

_"Harry, no!"_

_"I volunteer as tribute!"_

_"No, Gil!"_

_The sky turned dark, the podium exploded in a flash of light, the ground came up, then down, rising on the waves. The sea stretched on. How long..._

_"Harry Hook!"_

_Harry's stomach dropped. He took a tentative step towards the podium._

_"Harry, no!" A familiar voice cried. "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"_

_A huge hole opened up underneath him. Uma was on the edge of the pit. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up._

_"Uma Trite!"_

_This was wrong._

_Uma and Gil._

_They can't go away._

_No._

_No, no, _no, no, no.__

__There was a burning pain behind Harry's eyes. His head was going to explode. He went closer and closer to the edge. The edge that meant he would never come back._ _

His eyes snapped open.

Lilana Bout was unfolding a paper. A name. She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped, frowned, re-read the name, and started again.

"Our male tribute is... Harry Hook."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short first chapter. There will be more. It's my birthday today, in case you were wondering. It's a bit strange, I know, but I love mental stuff. Harry is going to slowly to crazier and crazier. Also, I love Finnick. Not sure if there's a lot of people in both fandoms, but whatever.


	2. One Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Promise?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait of however long it's been. Hope everyone likes this.  
> I made a slight change to the first chapter, Uma is now Uma Siren, not Trite, on account of a list of full names i made for a modern AU. And then I changed it back, so ignore that.

Harry stared at the thick carpet of the empty room. He felt cold. Nothing made sense. How could the Capitol have such blatant disregard for Gil's sacrifice? Absently, he wondered if anyone would come tell him goodbye, or if Harriet would only have time for CJ.

After what felt like an hour, the door opened and closed quickly. He was suddenly being strangled by a little teal storm. No, she was hugging him, not strangling him, not that he would notice the difference. He figured he should embrace her back, but his arms couldn't seem to move.

"Harry," she said, as if his name - uttered with as much love, longing, and devotion as it had ever been - was enough to keep him from the arena.

Would she cry when he was gone?

"Harry," she said again, this time to draw his attention. "You know I would've volunteered for her, right? I would have saved CJ if i could. You know that, right?"

Harry nodded. Uma was the victor of last year's games, meaning her name would be forever spared from the glass reaping bows. He knew. Uma had always helped take care of his family, even offered to let them live in the Victor's Village with her, but it was strictly family only. Family Uma didn't have.

"Harry, you have to come back. Please. Just try."

It would never happen.

"Promise?"

He found himself nodding slightly. It would never happen because CJ had to survive. Harriet would never forgive him if she didn't. CJ had to come back, because everyone loved CJ. Even their father, who was endlessly disproving of his son, and who mostly ignored Harriet. CJ was their little angel.

"Say it," she commanded, every once of fear or sympathy gone in those words.

"Promise." The words slipped out before he could stop them, his mind only wishing to obey Uma. She nodded, though she knew he was lying.

"You will come back. You _will_ be the victor. And then we can be neighbors." She said neighbors in a way that indicated something else entirely, something that made him wish for all the wrong things.

"Right," he said, his voice strangely raspy.

She looked into his eyes for a long moment. He found himself drowning in the deep twin pools of her brown eyes. Brown like he had never seen before. Not wood, not dirt. Something else entirely. No one in the world had eyes like Uma. Right now they were set with the hard edge of determination he had seen in them so many times, along with something softer, warmer. Something just for him. 

And suddenly, her mouth crashed into his. His entire world narrowed down to just the feel of her lips, soft and perfect. Panem, the Hunger Games, the Reaping, it all disappeared. The world was simply him and Uma, and something settled deep inside of him, as if that was the way it was supposed to be.

She had never kissed him before. No one had ever kissed him before, and certainly not in the way she was.

The door slammed open, and Uma jumped away. A Peacekeeper entered.

"The tributes will now be leaving. Please vacate the area."

Uma nodded, but looked at Harry one last time.

"Here," she said. She pulled a thin leather cord over her head. On it hung a weathered bronze medallion, the same one she had worn everyday he had known her. She slipped it over his head, the small circle of metal resting just below the neckline of his shirt.

Then she left.

The white-uniformed Peacekeeper gestured for him to follow her, then turned on her heel and walked away. With no other choice, he did the same. They stopped in front of a car that would bear the tributes inland to the train station. CJ and Lilana Bout were already there. In almost no time at all, they were seated in the strange-smelling vehicle and driving down the dirt road.

Harry looked at his little sister. On her wrist was a bracelet made of woven rope. It swirled up and down as if depicting waves. The pattern was simple, he could weave it himself, but the thin ropes that made up the bracelet were worn and soft. He recognized it as the same one Harriet had worn when she was little. Vague images of carefree laughter - the kind only the smallest children could produce - and a rocking rowboat. Coming back to reality, he noticed CJ's lips moving.

"-you that?" She pointed at the medallion hanging on the leather cord.

"What?" Harry asked blankly.

CJ rolled her eyes.

"Who gave you that?"

"Uma."

"Oh!" Lilana Bout exclaimed from the front passenger's seat. "The victor from last year? Uma Trite? You know her?"

Harry was trying to answer, but he was pretty positive someone was shoving knives down his throat.

CJ laughed in her signature mocking way.

"She's his _giiirlfriend_ ," she teased, drawing out the word.

Lilana gasped. " _Really?!_ "

"No," Harry interrupted, finally finding his voice. His mind wandered back to the way his lips still burned from the previous contact, but he refused to drag her into the Games again. Anything to do with the Games at all.

The Capitol woman looked mildly disappointed.

"Oh well, there goes good press."

Harry glared at his younger sister for making this whole mess. (Or at least it felt like a mess to him. His mind was running in circles and circles and circles, over and over and over, and he really needed to stop if he was going to make it out of this car alive). Only CJ could joke after being reaped for a Hunger Games. She shrugged innocently, apparently not concerned by his rapidly deteriorating mental stability. He tried to distract himself by looking out the window, but all he could make out was a swirl of colors.

The memory from earlier surfaced again.

_Harry and his sisters sat in a weathered gray rowboat. Harriet sat on the bench opposite himself, toddler CJ on the floor between them. They weren't far out, only about thirty yards. Harriet was laughing with CJ, and he got the impression it was about something he had done or said. The same twisted circle of rope adorned his older sister's hand that did CJ's in the present world. His sibling's laughing faces and expressions of pure joy seemed to slow down and pause. He couldn't hear their laughter. In fact, he couldn't hear the sounds from the docks or the noise of the waves. The horizon darkened from the colors of sunset and a cloud front raced towards them. The sea began churning, angry and restless._

"We're here!" Lilana Bout exclaimed in an overly enthusiastic voice, interrupting his thoughts. He felt lightheaded and dizzy.

They stepped out of the car, and he stared at the next vehicle.

He had seen supply trains before, but never anything this nice. It was pale gray, with massive luxury windows and a neatly stenciled "District 4" on the side. The car they were led into was located around the middle of the train. Without a sound, the sleek train pulled out of the station. Harry stood by one of the enormous windows, watching the district whip by.

"Children," Lilana Bout summoned them. "Your rooms are two cars down that way. do freshen up for dinner."

As the siblings obeyed, CJ muttered something about liking to freshen up the escort's face, making him smirk.

******

Harry couldn't sleep to save his life.

He lay in bed, dressed in scarlet pajamas he had pillaged from the closet, drowning in the ton of sheets, blankets, and furs. Dinner had been amazing, and now his stomach was full to bursting. It had been hours since they left the train station, but his lips still felt the pressure of Uma's.

One kiss.

At least the pain and shock of the day hadn't yet caught up with him, though it was annoying, just sitting there, waiting for your mind to run away. He didn't understand why he couldn't sleep. Normally he was dead tired. Then again, it was reaping day. Harry always had more... "episodes" on reaping day. Bad memories.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

 _It must be the bed,_ he decided.

Back home, he had never slept in a bed, always a hammock made of old fishing net with a few blankets piled on top. Home. He'd never thought of it that way before, though he supposed District 4 was technically his home. It didn't feel like home.

_Knives flashing._

_The boat rocked gently. The net dangled over the side, waiting to be pulled up. Back on the dock, Harry slid his thin knife across the silver belly of a fish. He watched as the guts fell to the docks, landing in a splatter of blood._

_Suddenly, the guts were stringy blond hair, stained pink in an expanding puddle of blood..._

Harry mentally yanked himself back to reality. He covered his face in his hands and found it wet to the touch. He realized he was crying. He was shaking uncontrollably. He wanted to scream, but he was fairly certain he wasn't breathing. At last he managed to suck in a breath, then another and another, but then it was too much. Air overwhelmed him and he was breathing in shallow gasps. His head felt swirly, like someone was flushing all his thoughts around inside, then draining them into his stomach so he felt as though he would-

In one sudden motion, he doubled over and retched, throwing up his entire dinner. He shivered violently and fell back on the pillow, hoping to at last sleep. Of course, he didn't. He was still shivering, a dangerous chill running down his spine, making him think he might vomit again.

It also smelled terrible. He got up out of bed and bundled the dirty things in a sheet, dumping them inside the closet. Then he took the biggest sheet he could find and twisted the ends, tying them to his bed and a decorative pillar against the wall, creating a makeshift hammock. He lay down in this, taking just one plushy blanket.

As he lay in his hanging bed, he felt around his neck and pulled out his medallion. It seemed as if it contained his promise to Uma, the one he could never keep. He turned it over in his hands a few times, then finally kissed the cool surface of the metal, and fell asleep soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized how long it's been since I updated this and... well yeah.
> 
> Is anyone else frustrated with our little Huma section of Descendants Wattpad writers right now? It's like they've disappeared off the face of the Earth! No one updates anymore!
> 
> Also, this could be one of my last updates on anything for a few days, so be actually excited for Monday.


End file.
